Revealed: from inside prison, how gangsters plot crimes

A gangster sitting in a jail plotted the murder of someone sitting almost 300 km away. This is what Punjab Police suspect in the Sidhu Moose Wala case.

This is not the first time that such a gangster sitting in prison has been accused of plotting or perpetrating a crime.

In June 2020, an associate of gangster Manjeet Mahal allegedly sent an audio file to businessman from Delhi's Tihar jail and demanded ₹1 crore. Just a month later, gangster Jitender Gogi allegedly threatened a businessman from inside Tihar prison, demanding ₹5 crore.

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Then in March 2021, police said that a Tihar inmate called up an associate from inside the jail to smuggle mercury inside to poison 2 inmates. In March 2022, an associate of gangster Tillu Tajpuriya was killed as part of plot hatched in Tihar by slain gangster Jitender Gogi's aides, as per police.

To avoid detection, criminals keep changing their method of communication, like using voice and video call features of social media platforms, to sending voice recordings.

But how do jail inmates get access to phones? The mobile devices can be handed to inmates by acquaintances during jail meetings or court hearings. In some cases at Tihar, mobile phones were wrapped in cloth or socks and thrown over the boundary wall of the jail. The other way is to either bribe or coerce jail staff.

The hiding places are quite unique, and disturbing. In August 2019, a Tihar prisoner swallowed 4 mobile phones. Doctors made him vomit three out, but the fourth was had to be surgically removed from his rectum.

In August 2021, an NIA team probing the case of a bomb scare outside Mukesh Ambani's house seized two phones at Tihar from the alleged chief of Indian Mujahideen. In January 2022, an inmate swallowed a phone to hide it, and doctors had to fish it out using a snare.

With such instances occurring at regular intervals, most recently in the Moose Wala and Lawrence Bishnoi case, questions have been raised about the situation at high-security prisons like Tihar.

In April 2022, Delhi government reportedly told Supreme Court that mobile signal jammers and X-ray scanners were being installed at Tihar. Earlier, in November 2021, Tihar authorities had said that 3 mobile signal jammers had been installed at the premises.

It remains to be seen how effective such steps are.